Caching is used to save the bandwidth on congested nodes in cellular networks. The cache is generally located near the base station for saving bandwidth.
However, when network caches are used in a cellular network, the caching effectiveness is not very high for points in the network where the user population is low. In general, caching effectiveness increases in direct proportion to the size of the user population. As a result, cache hit ratios are fairly low if a cache is implemented at a base station or in the case of high density radio access network (RAN) deployment, when a cache is implemented at a femto-cell, or at a micro-cell base station since the user population is low. Thus, benefits of savings on bandwidth reduction, or the improvement in user experience that caching can provide are not realized in these environments.
Accordingly, techniques that improve caching effectiveness in these low user population environments would be desirable.